I left Honolulu on Monday morning via ANA airlines, my first time on that carrier, and in spite of the fact that I booked my trip over three months ago, all that was left were middle seats. Still I was impressed by the outstanding service, the design of the aircraft, and fortunately, being a Star Alliance Gold member, I was able to enjoy the lounge before I left. I especially enjoyed the frozen yogurt with fresh fruit!

Bill Potter had left a few days earlier, and sent me a text that he was waiting for me outside of customs but what we didn’t know was that I exited through a different door and it took about 20 minutes to find each other. We then took a long train ride, then a long subway ride followed by a short walk before we finally arrived at our hotel almost three hours after my arrival.

I woke up at 1:20 am and never got back to sleep, because of a persistent ear worm of my prelude music at St. Mark’s on Saturday night and Sunday morning — the Mode Dorien by Marcel Dupré, the first in a set of four fugues he composed in 1968, the same year I was in Paris as his student. I had not played this piece in DECADES, and it brought me right back to my Paris days. I had forgotten that he autographed a copy of the music he gave me.

Someone recently commented on my blog about my studies with Marcel Dupré. You have to realize that I studied with him after only four years of organ study, and remember I really was not very accomplished on the piano even though I had played since I was four years old. I had heard that he was very strict with his other students, but with me he was very gentle. I was the same age as his granddaughter, and they occasionally invited me to eat with them.

This morning we have an appointment to see the Beckerath organ at the Hijirigaoka Church and we’ll be meeting its caretaker, organbuilder Munetaka Yokota. I had actually heard his name years and years ago when I read about an organ he built for California State University in Chico, Califonia. Here’s what I found through a Google search:

Munetaka Yokota is a celebrated organ builder known for building the two-manual tracker organ at Chico State University. The project, conceived by university organist David Rothe, involved Yokota as an “artist in residence” who taught students and community members handcraft techniques from the early 18th century to build the instrument between 1984 and its completion. The organ, modeled after the organs of Gottfried Silbermann, was constructed using donated materials like wood from fallen oak trees from the university’s campus.  

• Project Collaboration: The organ was a collaborative effort between Munetaka Yokota and Chico State University’s organist, David Rothe. 
• Apprenticeship and Training: Yokota, who had been an apprentice of organ builder John Brombaugh, trained students and community volunteers in historical organ-building methods to help construct the instrument. 
• Material Sourcing: The wood used for the pedal board and bench was donated by the city of Chico from the fallen Hooker Oak tree, while local companies contributed wood for the rest of the organ’s body. 
• Design: The instrument was designed as a Central German organ, similar to those built by Gottfried Silbermann, a renowned organ builder of the 18th century. 

Sadly I learned that the University had to remove the instrument after many years because it was a safety hazard in the Harlen Adams Theatre, but I found out that it is going to be reinstalled in Blessed Sacrament cathedral in Sacramento, California. You can read about it in this newsletter, in which the author described the instrument … ““ . . . it is the finest example of that style of building (Central Germany) during the life and times of Johann Sebastian Bach, a great composer to be sure, but who’s pulpit, his personal medium of expression, was the organ. The intricacies of his music are illuminated by this instrument – it is an incredible teaching tool and window into a bygone era. When your fingers touch the keys of the organ, you are transported to another time and the sonorities that follow lift the music to extraordinary heights of understanding. It is the perfect medium to comprehend the organ music of J.S. Bach.”

I’m excited to meet Munekata Yokota today!